Reflections on the AWeN Gathering and the Shining Mountains Grove
When I was invited to build the website for the AWeN Gathering at the Shining Mountains Grove, I said yes immediately. What I did not expect was how emotional the process would feel.
This grove has given me more than I can easily summarize. Over the years, it has been a source of personal growth, spiritual guidance, emotional support, and something just as vital: joy. Laughter. Levity. Around these fires, under these skies, and on our thoughtful meandering Walks with Druids, I learned that levity is medicine, and that reverence and humor are not opposites. They belong together.
The AWeN Gathering is a druid gathering rooted in relationship. Relationship with the land at Raven’s Ridge in Montana. Relationship with the ancestors and the cycles of the year. Relationship with one another, as we arrive from many paths with many stories and many levels of experience. And relationship with the Awen itself, that flowing inspiration that cannot be forced, only welcomed.
My own path in druidry has been shaped here. Not through rigid instruction, but through presence. Through sitting in the circle when I did not yet have the words for what I was carrying. Through learning how to listen more deeply to the land and to myself. Through being reminded again and again that growth does not have to be solitary to be authentic.
The Shining Mountains Grove offered me guidance when I asked for it, silence when I needed it, and laughter when things became too serious. That balance matters. Spiritual practice that cannot laugh at itself becomes brittle. Here, under the Shining Mountains, the work stays alive.
Building this site felt less like a project and more like an offering. A way of tending the path so others can find their way into the circle. A way of reflecting the spirit of the AWeN Gathering as it truly is: welcoming, grounded, creative, flexible, and deeply human.
This gathering is not about performance or hierarchy. It is about showing up, listening, being witnessed in your becoming. Whether you are a long-time member of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) or someone curious about druidry and considering attending a gathering for the first time, the circle makes room.
If you are reading this and wondering whether you belong, I can only speak from my own experience. I arrived as myself, and that was enough. The land and the warm company did the rest.
My hope is that this website serves as a doorway that carries a bit of the warmth of the fire, the openness of the sky, and the steady presence of the land. That it helps people feel the quiet invitation that says: Come sit with us for a while.
I am deeply honored to have helped build it.
Come circle with us. Heart to heart, hand in hand, under the Shining Mountains.
With love, respect, and gratitude,
Jayel Draco
EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF AN ANCIENT TRADITION
The AWeN Gathering is rooted in the traditions of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, whose work can be explored at: www.druidry.org.
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